Aersale (NASDAQ:ASLE) Q1 2026 Earnings Call

0:01 Hello, and thank you for standing by. My name is Ian, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the AerSale, Inc. Q1 twenty twenty six Earnings Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question and answer session.

0:31 I would like to now turn the call over to Christine Padron, Vice President, Global Trade and Compliance. Christine, please go ahead. Good afternoon. I'd like to welcome everyone to AerSale's first quarter twenty twenty six earnings call. Conducting the call today are Nick Finazzo, Chief Executive Officer and Martin Garmendia, Chief Financial Officer. Before we discuss this quarter's results, we want to remind you that all statements made on this call that do not relate to matters of historical facts should be considered forward looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws, including statements regarding our current expectations for the business and our financial performance. These statements are neither promises nor guarantees, but involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other important factors that may cause our actual results, performance, or achievements to be materially different from any future results.

1:29 Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from forward looking statements are discussed in the Risk Factors section of the company's annual report on Form 10 ks for the year ended 12/31/2025, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, on 03/10/2026, and in other filings with the SEC.

1:53 These filings identify and address other important risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events and results to differ materially from those indicated by the forward looking statements on this call. We'll also refer to non GAAP measures that we view as important in assessing the performance of our business. A reconciliation of those non GAAP metrics to the nearest GAAP metric can be found in the earnings presentation materials made available on the Investors section of AerSale's website at ir.aersale.com. After prepared remarks, we will open the call for questions. With that, I'll turn the call over to Nick Fanalco. Thank you, Christine, and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us today.

2:39 I'll begin with an overview of our first quarter performance and key operational developments and then discuss how we're progressing against our strategic priorities for 2026. I'll then turn the call over to Martin to walk through the financials in more detail. This quarter, our team stayed focused on executing our strategy across asset management and tech ops prioritizing one disciplined acquisition and modernization of flight equipment and used serviceable material, you'll hear me say USM. Two, expanding and optimizing our MRO capabilities. And three, building a recurring and more predictable revenue base through MRO services and leasing while maintaining our high standards for safety, quality, and on time performance.

3:34 First quarter revenue was $70,600,000 an increase of 7.4% from the prior year period. Adjusted EBITDA also increased by 4,200,000 or 131.9% to 7,400,000 from the prior year period. Excluding flight equipment sales, which tend to be volatile quarter to quarter, revenue increased 2.2% year over year reflecting growth in leasing and increased demand across our MRO facilities. This is supported by healthy activity across our core aviation end markets. Customer demand remains supported by high utilization levels and the ongoing need for reliable parts availability and turnaround performance.

4:30 Leasing demand remained a key driver of performance during the quarter, growing 47, 57.9% compared to the prior year period. We placed an additional Boeing seven fifty seven freighter aircraft into service ending the quarter with three aircraft on lease and one additional aircraft under a letter of intent for lease. We continue to engage in discussions with potential customers as increased demand for cargo continues to make us bullish on deploying the remaining four seven freighters seven we converted in 2026. We also expanded our engine lease portfolio ending the quarter with 18 engines on lease compared to 16 engines in the prior year period.

5:24 Higher average lease rates and improved utilization contributed to stronger asset yields across both aircraft and engines and reflect our continued progress towards building a larger and more consistent recurring revenue base. Partially offsetting the increased leasing revenue was a decrease in USM sales resulting from the internal consumption of engine material for our own engine builds. At present, we have multiple engines in work where most of the material required has come from our own inventory. And our decision to utilize this USM results from our determination that we will achieve a higher value and total dollar margin consuming this material rather than selling as USM piece parts to third parties.

6:18 Across our tech ops platform we continue to make progress on several strategic growth initiatives. At our on airport MRO facility in Millington, Tennessee, we commenced work under a recently awarded long term multi line aircraft maintenance agreement for a fleet of CRJ700 and CRJ900 regional jets. Jets. In addition, operations began at our expanded Aerostructures facility located in Hialeah Gardens, Florida. Both initiatives contributed to higher tech ops revenue in the quarter. As expected, when ramping up operations at new facilities, we incurred incremental training costs and early stage operating inefficiencies that created margin pressure during the quarter.

7:09 We view these impacts as temporary and expect margins and throughput to improve as volumes continue to increase and operations stabilize. TechOps was also impacted by lower MRO part sales in the quarter. Lastly, our Roswell facility experienced revenue and gross profit declines due to fewer aircraft in storage during the quarter. Related to our engineered solutions products, AirSafe continues to remain strong in advance of a federal aviation administration November 2026 compliance deadline for the fuel quantity indication system airworthiness directive related to fuel tank safety systems. We closed the quarter with a backlog of $15,300,000 of which the majority will close in 2026.

8:02 In addition, we continue to market our revolutionary enhanced flight vision system, Aeroware, to select interested customers. We're also continuing our efforts to educate our U. S. Regulators and the agencies responsible for the safety of our air transportation system on how the unique features of Airwear can improve safety and provide economic efficiency to the industry. During the quarter, we deployed 25,100,000 in feedstock acquisitions to support future leasing and monetization opportunities. We remain disciplined in our acquisition approach and continue to focus on assets where we see strong long term demand and attractive risk adjusted returns.

8:51 Our win rate in the quarter was 6.3% compared to 10.4% in the first quarter of twenty twenty five, which shows our commitment to discipline on pricing as we continue to evaluate opportunities to redeploy and monetize inventory in ways that improve velocity and cash conversion without compromising value. Looking ahead, our priorities for the remainder of 2026 remain consistent with those we have previously outlined. These include increasing the number of assets deployed in our lease pool, including the placement of the remaining four seven fifty seven freighters during this year, continuing to monetize our inventory through USM sales, filling available capacity across our MRO network and improving overall operational profitability as recent expansion initiatives continue to gain scale.

9:55 Despite the expected startup costs incurred in the first quarter, we remain confident in our ability to deliver improved financial performance as we progress throughout the year. With a strong inventory position and active leasing pipeline and expanded operational capabilities, we believe AerSale is well positioned to deliver more consistent and growing earnings.

10:20 With that, I'll turn the call over to our Chief Financial Officer, Martin Varmindia. Thanks, Nick, and good afternoon, everyone. I'll walk through additional details on our first quarter financial performance, then touch on cash flow, liquidity and our outlook for the remainder of 2026. Revenue for the first quarter of twenty twenty six was $70,600,000 compared to $65,800,000 in the prior year period. Flight equipment sales totaled $5,200,000 and consisted of one engine sale compared to $1,800,000 from one engine sold in the first quarter of twenty twenty five. Excluding flight equipment sales, revenue increased 2.2% year over year, driven by growth in leasing activity, partially offset by lower USM and MRO parts sales.

11:09 As we note each quarter, flight equipment sales can vary meaningfully from period to period. As a result, we believe performance is best assessed over time with a focus on feedstock acquisition, monetization of those investments and profitability trends. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $7,400,000 or 10.4% of revenue compared to $3,200,000 or 4.8% of revenue in the prior year period. The EBITDA dollar and margin increase was primarily driven by higher leasing revenue and flight equipment sales during the quarter. Asset Management Solutions revenue increased 10% year over year to $43,100,000 in the first quarter. Excluding flight equipment sales, revenue grew modestly supported by an expanded lease pool and favorable engine mix, but partially offset by lower USM volumes.

12:00 We ended the quarter with 18 engines and three Boeing seven fifty seven freighters on lease compared to 16 engines and one freighter on lease in the prior year period. Technical operations revenue increased 3.4% year over year to 27,500,000 driven primarily by higher on airport MRO activity. Growth was led by increased activity at our Goodyear and Millington facilities, including the initial ramp up of CRJ work at Millington. These gains were partially offset by lower MRO parts sales during the quarter. Gross margin for the quarter was 26.7% compared to 27.3% in the same period last year. The modest and temporary decline reflects start up and training costs related to the CRJ line in Millington and the Aerostructures expansion, as well as higher labor costs at Goodyear as we maintained elevated staffing levels in anticipation of increased demand expected later in the year.

13:03 We expect these margins to normalize and begin to improve as we increase labor and facility utilization. Selling, general and administrative expenses were $22,200,000 in the first quarter, down from $24,600,000 in the prior year period. The decrease reflects the benefits of our ongoing efficiency initiatives and the absence of one time severance costs incurred last year. Current year expenses included $1,800,000 of share based compensation expense compared to $1,200,000 in the prior year. Net loss for the first quarter was $3,500,000 compared to a net loss of $5,300,000 in the prior year period. Adjusted net income was approximately breakeven compared to an adjusted net loss of $2,700,000 last year.

13:51 Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $7,400,000 compared to $3,200,000 in the prior year period, which benefited from a higher margin product mix and lower expenses. Year to date cash used in operating activities was $26,700,000 primarily related to feedstock acquisitions of $25,100,000 as we continue to make disciplined investments to grow the Asset Management segment. We ended the quarter with inventory of $369,500,000 and aircraft and engines held for lease of $121,500,000 Available liquidity at the end of the quarter was $41,800,000 which included $2,100,000 in cash and $39,700,000 of availability in our 180,000,000 asset backed revolver, which can be expanded to 200,000,000 This available liquidity, growing performance and our strong inventory position provides us with the tool needed to continue to grow our business through the remainder of 2026 and beyond.

14:55 In conclusion, we remain focused on monetizing the investments that we have made. In a competitive market, we have built a strong inventory position that will allow us to continue to grow our leasing and USM activities. The commencement of a multiline maintenance program at our Billington facility and new work commencing at our expanded Aerostructures facility put us on a positive trajectory to exceed the incremental $50,000,000 revenue expectations for our expansion initiatives, with the expectations that margins will improve as we increase utilization of our additional capacity and start up initiatives mature. All of this will allow us to continue to grow both our revenue and profitability in a more predictable and recurring revenue quarter over quarter. With that, operator, we are ready to take questions.

15:44 Thank you. Our first question comes from the line of Kevin Liu with RBC Capital Markets. Your line is open. Hey, good afternoon, Nick and Martin. Thanks for taking the question. Could you guys maybe talk about what you guys are currently hearing from customers in light of the ongoing conflict in The Middle East as it relates to your business, whether that's in USM, spare parts or lease rates? Oh, hi. Hi, Ken. Thanks Kevin, I'm sorry. Thanks for the question. We're not really hearing much from our customers at this point because that's a question that internally we ask which is hey how is this going to affect how is The Middle East situation going to affect us in the short run? We're not seeing it yet.

16:43 What do we expect? We expect that if this continues for a prolonged period of time and we see airlines will park more and more aircraft the result of that will be more aircraft will be in storage which we'll benefit from. And there may be eventually a downturn in the demand for used serviceable material parts. However, as I've said, you know, every quarter this question gets asked, is there enough USM out there to support demand? And the answer is for the proper amount of USM I don't mean every part from every engine, but the parts that sell from an airframe or engine there continues to be excess demand than there is available inventory.

17:33 So until that may eventually equalize if a number of airplanes certainly during the COVID environment there were enough airplanes on the ground that there was no requirement or very little requirement for USM because aircraft were on the ground, aircraft could be cannibalized for parts, engines were not going into the shop because engines on wing were being cannibalized to keep other aircraft flying. So, over time, if this prolongs, if the fuel costs stay high, and that results in a substantial grounding of the fleet then we expect that that will have an impact. But I don't know when that would be. I believe that that impact would still be years off unless you've had a COVID type event where a substantial amount of the fleet is grounded. So, it's a long answer to your question. But the answer is we're not seeing an effect at this point. And based on the type of USM that we sell we don't expect there to be an effect in the short, certainly not in the short run.

18:37 Okay, got it. Thank you. That's helpful. And then maybe on a separate note, could you guys give us an update on your current capacity additions in MRO and maybe talk about the potential impact to revenues in your business, both this year as well as in 2027? Sure. So stated in the prepared remarks, Millington has come online and we have started CRJ line there. We kind of gone through some startup costs and learning curve. But right now that is potentially going to expand to three aircraft that will be at full capacity at the Millington location in a very profitable contract with a very good customer that we can provide multiple services to. At our Goodyear facility, we continue to ramp up with work, especially from the lows that we incurred last year after a long term contract had finalized.

19:30 And we continue to be bullish there. We continue to serve multiple operators, including Spirit and we are seeing a ramp up of return to service work for them, some of those overall aircraft. And based on the recent news, we expect that to accelerate during the remainder of the year. At our Roswell facility, we did note that we primarily do storage work there. We have seen a decline in aircraft being stored. But as you noted, if for some reason this the war in The Middle East continues and there is an overall reduction in aircraft operating, we could potentially see aircraft being returned into that overall location from a storage perspective. On our component MRO side, we noted that our Aerostructures facility came online during the first quarter.

20:21 But we are ramping up there. That's a 90,000 square foot facility. So we have a lot of capacity to fill. We've made a lot of inroads with customers getting that process finalized. So we expect to quickly start ramping up our demand there. Our landing gear shop has also been doing extremely well. We are starting two agreements, one with an OEM and one with a international carrier that are expected to significantly increase our volume at that facility as we progress through the overall quarter. And our component shop also, we've seen some increased overall demand and we continue to do additional initiatives to fill that capacity because we also have a good amount of available capacity there. So as the market continues and there is overall demand, we are definitely poised to grow and to fulfill some of those needs.

21:15 Got it. And I guess just one last follow-up. As you guys are selling this capacity today, can you guys maybe give us more color on what kind of margins you guys are getting on this new capacity and how we should be thinking about the potential EBITDA contribution from this? So I would say from at least what we're seeing on the on airport MRO side, there is still a need and there's still a limited supply of available slots. So we have been seeing margin improvement in that area. Overall, as I mentioned, in the quarter, we were temporarily margins were impacted by the Millington overall issue. But again, as Millington comes back on, we expect margins that will definitely, at least from a gross profit perspective, be in excess of 20%.

22:03 And then our Goodyear facility, we start doing return to service work, depending on the type of work that we're doing, we definitely expect margins to be better than they have been historically. Great, I'll leave it there. Thank you. And there are no further questions at this time. I would like to turn the call back over to Nick Ben Azzo, Chief Executive Officer for closing remarks. Okay, thanks. Despite non recurring startup costs from our facilities expansion projects in the first quarter, our operating business has continued to improve. These results validate our unique multi dimensional and fully integrated business model. And as these units continue to develop and mature will put us in an excellent position to achieve substantial growth in the years ahead.

22:56 I want to thank Kevin for his insightful questions today which I think provides good insight into our business model and will help our investors better understand how we are performing. To all the rest of you I very much appreciate your interest in listening to our call today and look forward to bringing you up to date during our next earnings call. I wish you all have a good evening and thank you.